Kensington will merge its two digital-first imprints eKensington and Lyrical Press into a single unit under the Lyrical Press name. The merged imprint will continue to be under the helm of Adam Zacharius, and directly managed by Alexandra Nicolajsen as well as Martin Biro, who has been promoted to associate editor, digital books. Renee Rocco remains managing director. Kensington Publishing president and ceo Steven Zacharius said: “As the largest independent publisher in America, Kensington is able to bring innovative ideas and a personal touch to each of the books we publish. By combining our two digital imprints, we’ve created a […]
eNews
Batman Beats Back Kindle Unlimited
Yes, you read that correctly. For the first day since we starting monitoring the effect on Kindle Unlimited titles on Amazon Kindle’s So-Called Bestseller List, the number of KU titles on the top 100 declined modestly, now accounting for 38 titles. But Batman related books have stormed the list, taking over 10 slots, including the No. 1 position. (Wednesday was celebrated as the 75th anniversary of Batman’s creation.) KU books still claim half of the top 50 titles, though (25 today, versus 24 yesterday), and Amazon Publishing’s own titles still show the biggest boost. The traditional publisher titles included in KU […]
Scholastic Takes $21.4 Charge, Mostly on Storia, Which Will Switch to School Licensing Model
Scholastic reported fourth quarter and full fiscal year earnings on Thursday morning, with sales rising 8 percent to $549 million and operating income increasing more, at $48.6 million. The stock rose in early morning trading on the improved results and positive guidance for next year. But the company disclosed a variety of charges, including a mostly non-cash, pre-tax charge of $21.4 million primarily due to a shift in their Storia ereading platform. Scholastic intends to move the service to a “streaming model,” and as a result they will not support various operating-specific Storia apps. That change and a “settlement charge” […]
Daily Update: Influence of Kindle Unlimited on Amazon “Bestsellers” Grows
Since no one else is reporting on this at all, we’ll continue our tracking. Amazon’s hourly list of the top 100 “paid” Kindle bestsellers appears to be under the steadily growing influence of Kindle Unlimited “checkouts,” which are counted as part of paid sales. In this morning’s check, 45 of the top 100 titles are also available through Kindle Unlimited — and 24 of the top 50 titles. Amazon Publishing’s own titles still appear to be benefitting the most, and self-published authors who are not exclusive to Amazon (and therefore not part of KU) seem to have lost the most […]
Apple Reports Softer iPad Sales, As iTunes Continues Growth
Apple reported third quarter revenue after the close of market on Tuesday, with sales of $37.4 billion (up 6%, largely due to growth in China), and net profit of $7.7 billion. iPad sales of 13.3 million were down 9 percent (from 14.6 million units a year ago), making approximately 227 million iPads sold since launch in spring 2010. The iTunes store segment (which includes their app stores, as well as “revenue from sales of AppleCare, licensing and other services”) rose 12 percent (or almost $500 million), to $4.485 billion for the quarter. Investors were back and forth at first on […]
Hachette Dispute Is Driving Some Amazon Customers Away
One persistent, unanswered question is whether the generally negative press coverage of the standoff between Hachette Book Group and Amazon has had any effect on the etailer. In a recent survey of almost 5,300 buyers (completed July 19), Peter Hildick-Smith of the Codex Group reports finding high awareness of the dispute. Just over 39 percent of respondents indicated that they were aware of the standoff. (For comparison, 28 percent of books buyers are “aware” of Malcolm Gladwell and 35 percent are aware of Lee Child.) Among those book buyers aware of the dispute who have an opinion on that disagreement, 19 percent […]